~ musings of a campus minister

deliberate discipleship

There are a ton of words and phrases that we use to describe our view and vision of what a disciple is and what discipleship means. Even among our own ministry we have used a plethora of different words to demonstrate how we talk about being a disciple or discipling others. Paul says in Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Being a disciple is someone who has submitted to Jesus and seeks to become like Him. Discipleship is imitating a mentor (disciple) who imitates Jesus.

If we were to take a look at discipleship at the time of Jesus we would see his talmidim (disciples) following him everywhere, imitating his every word and his every action. The desire of a talmid (disciple) was to know what the rabbi knew, in order to do what the rabbi did, in order to be just like their rabbi in his walk with God. Perhaps this gives new meaning to the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus says to his talmidim, “go do the same things that we have been doing the last three years. Just as I taught you, as we have lived life along side of each other, go teach others. Walk along side of them, live life with them, continue to imitate me so that in imitating you, they will be imitating me.”

Submit to Jesus and become like him and we can do this by imitating a mentor (disciple) who imitates Jesus.

Matthew, I appreciate the comment but let’s dig into the Jewish culture a bit. To understand Paul and his comment we need to understand what it means to be a disciple in the time of Jesus. Discipleship was all about imitation, it can be summed up in this way. The goal of a disciple was to talk like the rabbi talked, in order to do what the rabbi did, in order to be just like the rabbi in his walk with God. A disciple would try to think, talk, and act exactly as his rabbi. The goal of every rabbi was that his disciples would be as good as to better than him in their walk with God and understanding of Scripture. To be a disciple of a rabbi was difficult. The main goal by the age of about 13 was to have essentially the entire Old Testament memorized in a way that a rabbi would start quoting from various passages and the candidate applying to study under the rabbi had to be able to pick it up as soon as he stopped. This could go on for several hours as it was imperative that a disciple know the text. As a result of the stringent qualifications, only about 1% of top students even would consider applying to study under a rabbi. During the time of Jesus the estimate for the number of disciples or talmidim studying under any rabbi was in the neighborhood of 100 males in all of Israel and that would include the 12 disciples of Jesus. Let’s pause there for a moment.

Paul, who originally was Saul, was one of the up and coming great minds in the time period. He studied under one of the top rabbi’s and was a Roman Citizen. When he entered a room, other Jewish religious leaders would engage him in discussion to get his interpretation of Jewish (Old Testament) Scripture. However, once he encounters Jesus, he switches and calls Jesus his Rabbi. That is huge if you understand the culture. To have studied under one of the greatest Jewish rabbi’s then to declare later “imitate me as I imitate Christ” was declaring Jesus as his rabbi and WAS pointing us to Jesus. If the whole goal was to be just like your rabbi, then Paul is not being arrogant, he is being a typical disciple saying “as my disciple, imitate me in the things where I am imitating my Rabbi Jesus. In Matthew 28 Jesus says to go and make disciples. Jesus is saying go and do what I have spent the last three years doing with you. Be a disciple (imitate someone who imitates Christ), pursue God (intentionally engaging in spiritual practices or disciplines), model the pursuit, (pursuing God, engaging in spiritual disciplines in front of others), and teach others to do the same (instructing others in furthering the discipleship process). So Paul was not out of line because he wants others to imitate Jesus.

Tom,
you have written a lot about Paul and Jewish Culture. But since I’m following Jesus not Paul, what Jesus said is the most important thing. First I would like to establish a fact from the text of our Bibles about the words of Jesus speaking in complete consecutive sentences.

Jesus was asked twice which Commandment is the greatest or most important one, (Matthew 22 and Mark 12)
Both times Jesus answered quoting the same two commandments, from of the Law of Moses.

Jesus said that one of these two commandments is the first and greatest most important one. Which one is it? The one in Deuteronomy 6, or the one in Leviticus 19 ?

I’m not questioning that we are to follow Jesus at all… but we also don’t get to ignore Paul for “all Scripture is God breathed”. But we are missing the point. The point is about the model of discipleship that Jesus himself used and taught. It is the same we should be using today, I am a follower of Jesus. As I follow Jesus, I do things that Jesus would have me do. I study the Scriptures and pray, I raise my family to follow Jesus. In working with college students, we disciple students by having them in our home, in our life, walking beside us. There are things in our life, spiritual disciplines, the way my wife and I communicate after 25+ years of marriage, the way we teach our kids etc. things that we do because we follow Jesus, those things are things the students we disciple should imitate. That is what Paul is saying, “The things in my life that are of Jesus, imitate them because I am imitating Jesus when you imitate me, you are imitating Jesus.” Never am I questioning what Jesus says about loving God first and then loving others. On those to commandments stand all of the law and prophets. Paul’s claim to imitate him as he imitates Christ is a command that echoes love God love others. I believe Jesus taught Paul that very thing… that would have been a switch for Paul. Before, when he was Saul, his stance was love God, obey God’s commands… (love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and then remember the Sabbath) it was all about love God and obedience. When Paul says he is imitating Christ he is saying “Love God, love others”. I think if you look at all of Paul’s writings, it is about loving God and keeping God is His proper place as God Almighty Creator of all things and then loving others.

Tom, you wrote quote:
“….we also don’t get to ignore Paul for “all Scripture is God breathed”. ”

But you did not answer the question.
According to the voice of Jesus in your Bible, which one of these two commandments is the first and greatest most important one? The one in Deuteronomy 6, or the one in Leviticus 19 ?

The Church in Acts 8 was doing just fine, before the name of Paul was ever even mentioned. The had true Apostolic authority, they were reaching Gentiles, growing and expanding. Nothing was lacking, and they were true followers of Jesus- all without Paul or his letters.

Many self-professed “Bible-believing Evangelicals” won’t listen to the words of Jesus, because they are brainwashed through reciting their “mantra” – “all scripture is God-breathed.”

This “Evangelical Mantra” has been accepted by the collective subconscious mind of “The Evangelical Church” without thought, question, reflection, or even 2 witnesses from the Scripture itself. It’s based on a misinterpretation, out of context, of one verse in one letter written by one man, Paul the Pharisee, who was unfamiliar with the personal ministry and teaching of Jesus.

But, “Once an idea has been accepted by your subconscious, it remains there and it governs your behavior until it is replaced or changed.” [ as a pastor named Bishop Dale C. Bronner observed in one of his sermons]

(Definition from the American Heritage Dictionary.) Mantra (noun) (Hinduism.) A sacred formula believed to embody the divinity invoked and to possess magical power, used in prayer and incantation.

When cult members repeat their mantra, it makes them deaf to the voice of God, unable to hear God. Instead, it puts their focus on their one “special man” above all others – his personality, words and teachings, character, life example, feelings, experience, intentions, mind, will, emotions, etc. Their cult leader is their hero – he is always right, could never be wrong about anything specific, and he must be obeyed in all things and never questioned. He will give himself a special title, write at least one special book, and claim special authority, with no need for a second witness to back him up.
Here are 3 examples.

.1) Fuhrer. The title of Adolf Hitler as the leader of the German Nazis, author of “Mein Kamph”. Mantra: “Heil Hitler.”

.2) The self-appointed Prophet Muhammad, author of The Koran. Mantra: …..”and Muhammad is his prophet.”

.3) Paul the Pharisee, the self-appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, whose 13 letters comprise one third of what, today, we call the “New Testament.” (The first, original “New Testament” was composed by the second century heretic Marcion, and he coined the term “New Testament.” His new “book” contained nothing except 10 of Paul’s letters and an abbreviated Gospel of Luke. There were no other “New Testament” books, and the Hebrew Scriptures were the “Old Testament” which was irrelevant, according to the heretic Marcion.) Mantra: “All Scripture is God-breathed….”

I got my Masters Degree at Dallas Theological Seminary. I was attracted to the school because they put Paul’s mantra of “All Scripture is God-breathed” above everything else, and I wanted to heed Paul’s command and “Preach the Word” like Paul….

This mantra is a misinterpretation out of context of 2 Timothy 3:16. It ignores the previous verse, 2 Timothy 3:15, which clearly indicates that Paul was NOT referring to his own letters when he wrote the words “All Scripture.”

Paul was probably making reference to some of the Hebrew Scriptures, quite likely including the Law and the Prophets. We cannot be completely certain exactly which “Scriptures” Paul meant in “All Scripture”, and what Paul meant by “God-breathed.” Why can’t we be certain?

Because we must establish a matter by the testimony of two or three witnesses, especially something as important as “What is the Word of God.” No one else in the pages of the Bible besides Paul ever said anything like “All Scripture is God-breathed”. And Paul only said it here, one time, in the middle of a personal letter.

The Apostle Peter made reference to “Prophecy of Scripture,” not “All Scripture,” and no it’s not the same thing at all. Jesus never said anything like that. And no one, not even Paul, ever said that all Scripture was equal.

I remember the general approach to the Bible at Dallas being that “every word in the 66 Books is the Word of God”….. and we should interpret it based on “the intended meaning of the author in the historical grammatical context.”

That is the basic idea of the heavy-duty seminary language we were being trained in. It sounds so right, so intelligent, so professional, so “godly”….. but it is fundamentally flawed.

When we look at Paul’s teachings and testimony about himself, (in his letters that make up 1/3 of the New Testament,) we should NOT immediately ask ourselves; “what did Paul say, what did Paul mean, and how does this apply to my life?” The fundamental question is NOT “what was in the mind of Paul?”

Before any of that, the FIRST question to ask is; “does Paul agree with Jesus, who came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets?”

Paul contradicted himself, and his teachings and testimony about himself don’t harmonize with the teachings of Jesus (or with Luke’s record of his life.) Let’s not waste our time with endless debates about “what Paul really meant” with his wacky teachings about “baptizing the dead” or “there is neither male nor female.” Paul was wrong. Jesus reminds us from The Law “at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female.” [Matthew 19:4, Genesis 1:27]

As to the question of “whether the Bible is ALL truly Gods WORDS”…

The underlying unspoken assumption is that “The Bible” (66 Books) was given to us by God as “one book” and it’s all “equal” in level of authority, priority, and importance. This comes from unconsciously believing Paul’s mantra, the “Evangelical Mantra”, that “All Scripture is God-breathed”, and falsely assuming Paul was referring to every word in the 66 Books of the Bible. Yet even here, not even Paul, not even once, ever said that “All Scripture is EQUAL” in authority, priority, and importance.

No one in the pages of the Bible ever said or wrote that “all Scripture,” or “the Bible,” is “all truly God’s words”. Jesus never said anything like that, and Jesus did not see it that way. Jesus did not see even the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the “Old Testament”, as a whole unit or book that was all equal or “all truly God’s words.” Jesus spoke of The Law, or The Law and the Prophets, holding these 2 sections of the Old Testament above the third, least important sections the “Writings.” And Jesus held the Psalms, the first book of the “Writings” section, above the other books in the “Writings” section in importance, since some parts of some Psalms are prophetic.

Obviously, the New Testament Scriptures were not written when Jesus was walking the earth. But if we want to get closest to The Source, Jesus himself, it makes sense that we should look first to the eyewitness testimony of two of His appointed Apostles who walked with Him faithfully for over 3 years, Matthew & John. (Also to other eyewitness testimony, recorded by Mark and Luke.) This is more accurate, important, and authoritative than personal letters written by Paul the Pharisee, who never knew Jesus personally, had no part in His ministry, and had no eyewitness testimony.

We should follow the Jesus of the Gospel writers. We should not follow the “jesus” of Paul the Pharisee or Muhammad or any other man, who had their own ideas of who “jesus” was and what He did.

Actually, I did answer your question although perhaps not directly. Love the LORD your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind (strength) is the greatest command and a second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments stand all of the law and the prophets. I contend that after his encounter with Jesus Paul was no longer a pharisee as he switched his allegiance to Jesus. That is why the cultural implications can’t be ignored. When Paul says he imitates Jesus as his Rabbi, he is making a strong statement as to who he follows. In doing so, Paul would have taken on all of the teachings of Jesus. That is why the name change is significant, Paul changed who he was.